The present invention relates to a patient support, such as a bed, stretcher, cot, or the like, that is suitable for supporting a patient in several different environments, including a hospital, an outpatient clinic, an urgent care facility, a nursing care facility, or a long term acute care facility.
When designing patient supports, there are several competing goals. With the ever increasing number of bariatric patients, hospital beds, stretchers and cots have necessarily increased in size and weight. The size and/or weight of patient supports are not only impacted by the need to accommodate bariatric patients, but also by the desire to provide increased functionality to improve patient care and treatment. However, the use of larger and/or heavier supports may be precluded in some facilities due to the size and/or age of the facility. For example, in older hospitals, the hallways, elevators and doors may not have been designed to accommodate the size and/or weight of current patient supports.
Additionally, it is known that lowering a patient close to the floor can reduce patient falls. However, current bed side rail designs and lifting mechanisms often limit how low the patient can be lowered in order to maintain full functionality. Further, to improve pressure redistribution and thereby reduce the risk of pressure sores, the depth of patient lying surfaces have increased to provide greater immersion. As a result, the height of current mattress designs have also increased the lowered bed height.